The BBC must not be used as a vehicle to legitimize the arms trade, a charity warns. It is calling for newly-appointed Vice Chairman Roger Carr to resign, citing conflict of interest with his role as chairman of Europe’s largest arms firm BAE Systems.

In response to Carr’s
BBC appointment, Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) has
launched a petition calling for him to step down. The anti-arms
charity is urging the BBC to sever its ties with Carr, and the
arms trade itself.

Carr’s new role at the BBC Trust is prestigious, and places the
BAE Systems chairman right at the center of the organization. The
trust governs the national broadcaster, and is independent of BBC
management.

Its primary objectives are to mold policy in accordance with the
public interest, set out the BBC’s strategic direction, and
monitor the work of the BBC’s Executive Board.

Appointments to the trust are made on the recommendation of UK
government ministers. The board of trustees consists of 12
people, including a chairman, a vice chairman and members
representing England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

BAE Systems has sold weapons to despotic regimes and human rights
abusers in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel. The firm’s
reputation has been further damaged by bribery allegations that
have sparked multiple anti-fraud investigations in Britain and
America.

Despite his prominent role at the firm, Carr will be paid £70,610
a year to ensure the BBC acts in accordance with license fee
owners’ interests.

CAAT suggests the arms dealer’s appointment could pave the way
for the broadcaster to whitewash the arms trade’s destructive
impact across the globe.

The charity warns arms dealers care little about broadcasting or
the public interest and are primarily driven by a desire to
bolster arms sales and attract a veneer of legitimacy in the
process.

The BBC Trust faced further scrutiny and criticism last month
when its chair, Rona Fairhead, appeared before the Public
Accounts Committee (PAC) as a non-executive director of HSBC’s
disgraced Swiss subsidiary.

Following allegations the banking giant’s Swiss arm had aided
criminals, drug dealers, and terrorists in dodging taxes, the
PAC’s chair said Fairhead was no longer capable of continuing her
role at the BBC in light of her performance at HSBC.

Despite the PAC’s
damning assessment, Fairhead has remained steadfast in her BBC
Trust role.

In 2014, BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson was forced to
withdraw from speaking at a glitzy banquet for arms brokers in
central London, following a political campaign orchestrated by
CAAT. But whether CAAT’s
call for Carr to resign from the BBC trust will reap tangible
change remains to be seen.

Dasha Ilic, Communications Manager at Britain’s Media Diversity
Institute, said it’s important to consider the “choice of
trustees” appointed to the BBC.

In the case of Roger Carr, Ilic urged those who appointed him to
reflect “carefully and seriously” on a potential
“conflict of interest” he may face in his new role.
On a broader level, Ilic
stressed diversity is a vital characteristic of the BBC’s output
and managerial structures.

She stressed the BBC Trust and broadcasters “are still
‘hideously white,’ as the former Director General Greg Dyke put
it more than 10 years ago.”

“We absolutely need to have more journalists, producers,
managers and trustees coming from black and ethnic minorities’
background,” she said. She added there should be more women
working at the BBC in high powered positions.

BAE systems is the third-largest arms producer in the world. Its
arms portfolio includes warships, fighter aircraft, tanks,
armored vehicles, artillery, missiles and small arms ammunition.

While Saudi Arabia and Britain are two of its longest-term
customers, the firm sells a range of arms to an estimated 100
states across the globe.

The arms giant has been engulfed by corruption scandals in recent
years, prompting multiple Serious Fraud Office (SFO) probes into
its use of bribery to bolster arms sales.

The SFO accused it of corruptly doling out millions of pounds to
secure lucrative arms deals with numerous states, including
Tanzania, the Czech Republic and Romania.

The SFO investigations into BAE Systems practices spanned six
years, with some harking back to the 1980s. Although the
anti-corruption body threatened to prosecute BAE systems in 2009
for bribery, it backed down in 2010.

BAE Systems’ business continues to boom, while its chief
executive was awarded a £1 million pay rise in 2014.